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DOE pays workers...to play cards?

Earlier this month, a hybrid battery plant in Holland Michigan began furloughing workers. Yes, even before the plant had produced a single battery since ground was broken in 2010. The plant received $150M in taxpayer money to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles but, due to lack of demand, it doesn’t look like we are getting our money’s worth.

Last week, it was reported that, for the last several months, workers have had “so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies” on the company dime...make that the taxpayer dime. A former employee stated that "There would be up to 40 of us that would just sit in there during the day.” Many employees have also gotten active in the community and begun to spend their days volunteering. An honorable way to spend the day, but why are taxpayers paying them to do it?

The goal was to have 300 employees creating 15 million battery cells per year, most of which would be destined for a Chevrolet Volt. Instead, the skeleton crew working at the plant has no work to do at all. In fact, workers say that the materials needed to make the battery cells have all been shipped to another plant in Korea.

When Barack OBama attending the groundbreaking in 2010, he said "This is a symbol of where Michigan is going, this is a symbol of where Holland is going, and this is a symbol of where America's going.” It doesn’t sound like the city, state, or country is going “forward,” does it?

$150 million for Alaskan fisheries, $2 million to the Smithsonian to repair roofs and $8 million to Homeland Security and the Justice Department to buy cars. And that's just the start. No, this is not Stimulus Part 2, this is the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill, rightfully dubbed the "Sandy Scam." As Matt Kibbe pointed out earlier, the Sandy Scam Bill whose total price tag is $60.4 billion, also contains:

My family has deep roots in Michigan, from the frigid locks of Sault Ste. Marie to the college-town ambience of Kalamazoo. But ultimately, my parents left Michigan and eventually the Midwest in search of jobs. Jobs found in the “right-to-work” state of Arizona.

Last week, after Right-to-Work passed in Michigan, many were celebrating workplace freedom in the historic union stronghold. Some, however, were less than thrilled. Take, for example, Michael Moore, hypocrite extraordinaire who took to Twitter to express his displeasure.

Michigan, a historic union stronghold and birthplace of United Auto Workers, has now taken a leap forward in workplace freedom. Last night, Michigan lawmakers passed right-to-work legislation, giving workers in the state the choice to join a union, or not, as they saw best.

On the heels of two big wins for workplace freedom in Michigan, it looks like the state might be taking an even bigger step: becoming a right-to-work state. There are currently twenty-three right to work states, and the addition of Michigan would be a huge boon for workplace freedom.

With Congress set to convene to tackle sequestration and the fiscal cliff, the talk has once again centered around federal budget cuts and their potential effects. Tax hikes are back on the table, according to a few prominent Republicans this weekend. A large number of difficult military cuts looms. But few are thinking about the other layers of public spending that will be affected. State budgets will see massive effects from a potent mix of direct spending cuts and revenue reductions based, ironically, on the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts.

President Obama’s reelection triggered a ticking time bomb of fed up Americans. Across the country small businesses and large corporations alike are closing their doors or laying off hundreds of employees. The innovators and entrepreneurs of America have been weary of increasing government regulation for quite some time, now.

In Michigan, Proposition Two is one of the most buzzed about topics on the ballot. Proposal Two would add the right to collective bargaining to Michigan’s Constitution and is hotly contested in the state. The proposal gives Michiganders “the rights to organize together to form, join, or assist labor organizations, and to bargain collectively with a public or private employer.”